A13 JOHN KEMP’S WAGER 1925

a. First edition:

John Kemp’s Wager | A Ballad Opera | By ROBERT GRAVES | Therefore roome! you moral precepts. | Give my legs leave to ende my Mor- | rice, or that being ended, my hands | leave to perfect this worthlesse poore | tattered volume. | William Kemp’s Nine Daies Wonder | Oxford: Basil Blackwell | Publisher to the Shakespeare Head Press | of Stratford-upon-Avon | 1925

Collation: [a]8b–f8, 48 leaves.

p.[i] blank; p.[ii] British Drama League notice; p.[iii] [all flush left:] The British Drama | League Library | of Modern British | Drama No. 11 | John Kemp’s | Wager | Robert Graves; p [iv] British Drama League and British acting rights notice; p. [v] John Kemp’s Wager; p.[vi] blank; p.[vii] title-page; p.[viii] printer’s notice; p.[ix] To my friend | ERNEST NEALE | of Islip Post Office; p.[x] blank; pp. xi–xiii Author’s Note; p. [xiv] Persons of the Play; p. xv Synopsis of Scenery; p.[xvi] blank; pp. 1–75 text; p.[76] blank; p.[77] colophon; pp. [78]–[80] blank.

18.5 × 12.4 cm. Bulk: 0.6/1.0 cm. White wove paper; all edges trimmed. No endpapers; pp.[i] – [ii] and [79] – [80] pasted down to covers. Bound in white boards; front and back have green borders and overall interlocked ring design; back without legend; front has green-bordered box, in green with: THE BRITISH DRAMA LEAGUE LIBRARY | OF MODERN BRITISH DRAMA. NO. 11 | JOHN KEMP’S WAGER | BY ROBERT GRAVES; at lower left, in green-bordered box, in green: OXFORD. BASIL BLACKWELL | AT THE SHAKESPEARE HEAD; spine, from bottom to top: BRITISH DRAMA LEAGUE LIBRARY. NO. 11 JOHN KEMP’S WAGER.

Price: 3s. 6d. Number of copies: 750. Published 12 May 1925.

Notes: A13a–c were all printed in Great Britain. In 1973

Folcroft Press issued a photocopy reproduction of this edition.

A13b. Limited issue (1925):

Title-page as A13a.

Collation as A13a.

Remainder differs as follows: p.[iv] adds: ONE HUNDRED COPIES OF THIS PLAY | HAVE BEEN PRINTED ON KELMSCOTT | HAND-MADE PAPER, OF WHICH THIS | IS NUMBER [number] | [signature of Graves].

19.3 × 12.3 cm. White laid paper; top edges unopened; all edges untrimmed. White laid endpapers. Bound in white boards with parchment spine; front and back have paper labels as A13a; spine stamped in gold, from top to bottom, same legend as A13a.

Price: 10s. 6d. Number of copies: 100. Published in June 1925 in a plain tissue wrapper.

A13c. American issue (1925):

John Kemp’s Wager | A Ballad Opera | By ROBERT GRAVES | [6 ll. quotation as A 13a] | Copyright 1925, by Robert Graves | Samuel French (Incorporated 1898) | T. R. Edwards, Managing Director | 25 West 45th Street, New York City | 1925

Collation as A13a.

Remainder differs as follows: p.[iv] has a paper label pasted below the League notice assigning American and Canadian acting rights to French; pp.[vii]–[viii] is a cancel, pasted to the stub of a4.

18.5 × 12.4 cm. Bulk: 0.8/1.2 cm. Paper and binding as A13a.

Price: $1.25. Number of copies: 250. Published in 1925.